Should The Yankees Sign Bo Bichette?

Bichette is 27 years old and is coming off a season in which he hit .311 with a 134 Weighted Runs Created+, .840 On Base Plus Slugging Percentage, and drove in 94 runs. This is a very enticing offensive player as he gets on base, rarely strikes out, and also hits for a high average consistently.

Bichette is also a career 122 wRC+ hitter, with a .294 batting average, and is a two-time All-Star with the Blue Jays.

Bichette hits the ball hard, had 63 extra-base hits this past season, and is simply a professional hitter. Bichette seems like one of those hitters who will always be able to hit, no matter how old he is. This is the type of player that you want to hand out a large contract to, as he doesn’t heavily rely on his speed and athleticism.

Ideally, a contract in the four to six-year range would make a ton of sense for him, as they wouldn’t be on the hook for him at even his mid-30s.

Bichette is also an absolute warrior who had a .923 OPS and hit .348 in the World Series on basically one knee. He hit a massive 3-run home run in Game 7 off Shohei Ohtani. This is a guy who risked his entire free agency playing injured on the biggest stage, showed out, and will now cash in on a very lucrative contract.

Bichette’s teammates had to have earned even more respect for him after fighting through all of that pain to play on the biggest stage with so much at stake. The playoffs are where legends are made, and putting his body on the line for him and his guys will definitely earn him even more money.

What Are The Concerns About Bichette?

The main concern with Bichette is that his defense is so bad at shortstop that he most likely has to move off the position entirely. This past season, Bichette graded out dreadful with -12 Defensive Runs Saved, -13 Outs Above Average, and -10 Fielding Run Value across 1139 innings. Luckily for him, he can easily move to second base just like he did in the World Series to further maximize his bat while not diminishing his defense by playing a less demanding position.

This also means that he would be getting paid second base money instead of shortstop money which would lower the value of his contract.

Even if Bichette ends up returning to Toronto, it would be in their best interest to move Andres Gimenez to shortstop. Bichette would play second base. Gimenez has an excellent glove at shortstop, as he is a platinum glove recipient and has also won the gold glove three times at shortstop.

Another concern with Bichette is that he has his injury concerns recently. He missed a majority of the Blue Jays’ World Series run with a sprained left knee and couldn’t run when he came back. Bichette also missed 81 games in 2024 with both a calf strain and a season-ending middle finger injury as well.

Bichette is an aggressive hitter, which can simultaneously help and hurt him as he hits bad pitches, while not walking much. This leads to him chasing a ton of pitches, and his bat speed is also comfortably below average.

Bichette also had the lowest sprint speed of his career in 2025, as he had a 26.1 feet per second, which was only in the 21st percentile. This is a guy who has only a career 60 stolen bases in 748 games, so he’s going to give you next to nothing on the bases with all due respect.

The End Of My Bo Bichette Rant

Bichette would be a massive upgrade to the Yankees’ infield, but only if they were able to retain Chisholm. It’s interesting that New York is fielding offers for Chisholm but is intrigued by Bichette, as this would be an immediate downgrade in speed, athleticism, and defense.

It would make more sense to have an infield with both Bichette and Chisholm, as opposed to replacing one with the other. Imagine two infielders who can easily put up a 120 wRC+ season on the same team. It would be tough to move any of their current infielders off of their defensive positions, since they’ve all excelled there, but we’ve all seen crazier things happen.

With Bichette and Chisholm, you would then have the likes of Aaron Judge, Ben Rice, and Giancarlo Stanton as the big bats in the lineup. Gerrit Cole is returning, Cam Schlittler is looking to build on his impressive second half, and the Yankees have a good amount to look forward to entering 2026.

In this situation, New York would let Bellinger walk and have Dominguez and Spencer Jones fighting over the left field position. An outfielder who can hit left-handed pitching would make sense in this scenario, as they’ve both struggled against lefties. They could aim to swing a trade for Steven Kwan of the Cleveland Guardians, who is an excellent fielder and a league-average hitter.

As things would currently stand, Bichette would play shortstop, Chisholm would play second base, and McMahon would play third base. This sounds ideal offensively, but as aforementioned, Bichette is a massive question mark defensively, which makes this tough. On the other hand, it helps to fill a positional need that Volpe’s occupied for three uneventful seasons in New York.

It’s time for General Manager Brian Cashman and owner Hal Steinbrenner to start this new year off with a bang. If they think that should be Bichette, then do it, especially if Bellinger’s market is still too high. This would be even more of a home run if Bichette were physically capable of playing shortstop at a league-average level, but we’ll see.